Dungeon Hunter - Chapter 126

Chapter 126: Episode 37. Shadow of Nothingness, Contegnome (1)

Peru was in such a bad condition, so there was no way Brazil, where the dungeon was, would be safe. Brazil was far worse than Peru.

“Dungeon Master, I, Krathra, have come to greet you.”

When we arrived at the pre-set place, Krathra and some Dark Elves showed up. They were covered in dirt and straw as they were monitoring Oculus’s dungeon.

“Are there any noticeable movements?”

When I asked, Krathra hesitated.

“It was only for a moment, but a huge wave of mana was formed in the dungeon. It disappeared instantly so I thought I was mistaken. But I am sure, there was something. The monsters were daunted at the moment, too.”

If the monsters in the dungeon were influenced, it was clear that something happened.

I frowned.

“The summoning was successful.”

I had no idea what he had summoned. And not knowing multiplied my discomfort. I had been taking actions based on information from my previous life, so I had no choice but to ignore completely new things.

“You all did a good job.”

But still, I did not skimp on praises, because it was true that Krathra and Dark Elves had suffered without sleep for about fifteen days.

“Thank you!”

I ignored their bows and took out Rage and the Emperor’s Sword.

The dungeon was close, and I had to hurry before Oculus noticed me.

If Oculus felt danger, and his demons started moving, things would be more annoying.

I had already talked so much about destroying my enemy. I had also announced my goal and purpose. There was nothing that I had to say anymore.

Krithli, Krathra, Tashumal, and all the monsters were ready.

Yes, I did not have to say anything. The only thing left to do was attack!

“Let’s go!”

We ran to the dungeon.

Giant ants emerged from the ground. They were the lowest-grade monsters called “War Ants.”

One ant itself was nothing, however, hundreds to thousands of them always gathered together. So, they could hunt stronger enemies than them.

If they were ordinary lowest-grade monsters, they would have already ran away as soon as they saw so many monsters, not thinking about retaliating.

No one would have time to give orders to them. It was far from normal that they came at us without any fear.

“Griffin.”

Kiyyyyk!

Griffin, who had suffered great injuries in the battle with the Infinite Flesh previously, became more active after he recovered and spread his wings wide.

Bang!

The War Ants melted immediately.

Just a powerful blow was enough to exterminate a large number of the lowest grade monsters. Few can match Griffin in that respect.

The ants were totally destroyed. Very few War Ants survived, and the Kur Clan hunted the last of them.

The time that it took? Less than five minutes.

I planned to handle the job swiftly. We wiped out the enemies and moved on straight away.

Since Krathra had already figured out the way in the dungeon, it was easy to move up. But the only monsters we saw up to the fifth floor were the War Ants.

“Ant tunnel.”

Oculus’s dungeon was an ant tunnel. The only monsters he had were ants.

We arrived on the sixth floor, and something finally changed.

There were egg storages. Egg storage was a place where thousands of ant eggs were sleeping, and Guardian Ants were guarding them.

Guardian Ants were lower-grade monsters at level 3. They were usually bigger than War Ants and had strong mandibles. Their speed and power couldn’t be ignored, too.

“Burn everything.”

But still, they were just low-grade monsters. They were not a problem. The only problem was that there was more than one storage.

There were dozens of them at a glance, so it would take too long to destroy using Griffin. Although Griffin’s “Fire and Lightning” was a wide-range skill, the dungeon was too big for a quick kill.

So, I deployed the three Fire Golems. It would burn all the eggs and protect my back in an emergency situation.

Although Guardian Ants had strong mandibles, they could not bite Fire Golems. Furthermore, Fire Golems were natural enemies of Guardian Ants.

Boom! Boooom!

After receiving my command, the Fire Golems started to move. The ground shook every time their heavy bodies moved.

Whoosh!

The flames soared wherever the Fire Golems’ hands touched. The eggs in the storages were burnt black. Guardian Ants tried to stop them, but when they bit the legs of the Fire Golems, they all melted. The Ants could not even touch the Golems.

It was so easy. Nothing could stop us. At this rate, it would not be hard at all to reach the top floor.

However, as I climbed more floors, I noticed something odd.

“He should have noticed already.”

More than 5,000 monsters had entered the dungeon. There was plenty of time for the fairy of the dungeon to inform Oculus about it. But there was no reaction.

“Is he encouraging me to proceed? Or does he really not know that I am here?”

I couldn’t know the truth since I was not Oculus, but either way, there was nothing bad for me.

On the 11th floor, the intermediate-grade monsters appeared. They were Gigantic Ants, the intermediate monsters at level 3.

Their whole body was covered with peculiar, hard materials that looked like armor. They were pretty tricky to handle. Furthermore, they spat out a chemical from their mouth like humans’ machine guns.

Boom! Boom!

They were also very loud. When over 100 Gigantic Ants moved to attack at once, it was hard to keep going. We managed to move forward, using high-grade Golems as barricades.

The chemicals emitted by Gigantic Ants could be fatal to living things. The chemicals could explode at contact, penetrate the body through that wound, and destroy all nervous systems.

Gigantic Ants had a tolerance to fire, so Griffin was not a good choice this time. Well, of course, they would die if Griffin used all its skills. But I didn’t want to spend all of Griffin’s energy here.

“Naga Queen.”

Slyly—

The Naga Queen had the tail of a snake and the upper body of a beautiful woman. She was a high-grade monster at level 5, one of the strongest monsters I had.

The Nagas and Naga Queen quickly crawled out onto the ground and walls. Their sharp teeth and strong venom could melt down the armor of the Gigantic Ants.

Haaaaaa—

The Naga Queen blew out a purple smoke towards the gigantic ants in front of her. The breath turned into fog as it spread. It was her “Poison Spray (Ex U)” skill.

Gigantic Ants that came into contact with the purple fog began to melt. They had solid armors and powerful weapons, but they were useless when countered with Naga’s poison. Naga Queen was their natural enemy.

“Now, it is time to catch the queen.”

We have met War Ants, Guardian Ants, even Gigantic Ants. So, the only one left would be the Queen Ant.

That meant we had almost arrived at the end of the ant tunnel, and I was looking forward to seeing when Oculus would move.

The Queen Ant!

The giant ant about the size of a Golem, screamed out.

Kiyiiiiii!

The strident sound echoed in the dungeon.

The Queen Ant was in a miserable state. All her legs were cut, and her body was torn. She had so many wounds that could not be healed anymore.

Roar!

White Tiger growled on the body of the Queen Ant. It was a roar of victory. Soon, it bit off her neck and ended the battle.

Despite the deaths of a dozen Saber Tigers, this was a great success.

“Oculus left Queen Ant alone. Unless he has points to burn, he should be making his move now.”

There was no trace of Oculus yet. If there was a teleportation magic circle, I would have noticed already because the wave of mana that occurred immediately after the magic circle drawn, was huge enough for an ordinary human to feel. So, if he had moved using the magic circle, there would be a sign, but there was no sign of it.

Even if Oculus was not in the dungeon, the fairy of the dungeon should have come out to stop us, by deploying numerous monsters or something.

“The damage we received was minor. Maybe I lost about two hundred intermediate monsters. I still have enough monsters to cut Oculus’s throat and escape safely.”

I turned to look at Krithli. “Is there any contact from the other Dark Elves?”

“No, my Dungeon Master.”

“Hmm. So, his demons are not moving, too, then.”

I wasn’t only watching Oculus. I had sent other Dark Elves to his demons’ dungeons. I gave them crystal balls so they could let me know if something went wrong.

There was no news, so that meant that the demons weren’t moving. Therefore, I only needed to pay attention to Oculus.

“Then—”

I was about to say “let’s move” but at that moment…

Whoosh!

A rough wind blew.

Kiiiii!

The dying Queen Ant screamed out all of a sudden. And its body disappeared in the blink of an eye.

“This aura…!”

Tashumal spread her wings. She activated “Showers of Spears of Darkness (Epic),” and hundreds of spears appeared in front of her. She threw those spears all over the dungeon.

Boom! Wham! Whack!

An explosion took place. The light brightened the dungeon, and I could finally see something.

“A shadow.”

There was a shadow. A very large shadow was at the wall.

Tashumal shouted in astonishment, “Nothingness!”

Nothingness?

I didn’t know what that was and why Tashumal was so surprised. She was nervous and wary of the shadow.

“You should not be here! Go back! This isn’t the place for you!”

―Go back? I was originally a native in a place not that much different from here.

The shadow said in a deep, low voice as if it was irritated. But Tashumal had a tough attitude.

“If you have entered ‘Nothingness,’ you can’t be called a native anymore. You ungrateful being! You ate a God, and you could not become a God!”

I could not follow what they were saying. In the first place, what the hell was “Nothingness?”

When I didn’t know the shadow was there, I could not notice, but after I became aware of it, I could feel its overwhelming presence. This was something I had never seen before.

It had been a while since I last felt like this. The feeling that I felt when I encountered the Archdukes in Devildom, filled my body. The feeling that warned me that the opponent was a strong one.

―I didn’t become a God? Nonsense! I am the true God, who exists alone. Don’t you dare talk like that to me! You are just a fallen angel!

“Then, you must remember your past life! Whose God are you? Even though I had fallen, I can’t stand a fake God that impersonates the real God!”

Whoosh!

The wind got stronger. Around Tashumal, numerous Spears of Darkness floated.

―I am Contegnome! I am the true God! You are the fake one, b*tch! You damn fallen angel!

Tashumal smiled bitterly. “Ha. It looks like you can remember nothing but your name. You must have lost all your memory when you entered Nothingness!”

Swish!

The shadow that called itself Contegnome moved.

Boom!

Tashumal retaliated. She threw numerous spears with Thunders of Darkness.

But the shadow was fast. It was hard to hit it. However, whenever the shadow touched Tashumal, her flesh was flayed.

“Contegnome.”

I kept thinking about the name. I felt like I had heard it from somewhere.

Soon, I recalled the memory and became surprised.

“The king of Yetis, Contegnome!”

The only Yeti that could be called as king. He was the ancestor of the cursed Yeti who was sold in the Auction of Devildom, and I had also seen his Helm at the Achievement Store.

I never thought I would meet him in person. The form of the giant shadow looked similar to a Yeti. He must have died a long time ago, but here he was, as a shadow.

“One thing I am certain of is that I have to get rid of him to move forward.”

“Mago.”

Whoosh—

Mago was the highest monster at level2 that I had purchased in the auction of this year.

The one-eyed Mago came forward.